POOM, the DOOM clone, is a "multi-cart" on the Pico-8 and still only comes in at 1.2MB on Windows. I guess what I'm getting at is, if someone wants a fast-track to meeting the challenge of 1.44MB, make a Pico-8 game.
Competitions for 16KB games exist. as well as 64KB. And likely everything between 0KB and 1440KB. It doesn't reduce the fun to have multiple tiers, in my opinion.
"Build a game that stands the test of time as well as Civilization" is a pretty high bar. 1.44 MB is huge.
> All files required to run each game must fit within 1.44MB. Entries must be standalone games that run without a separate server or internet connection, and the size limit includes every required component, including game engines and libraries.
Your average PC has half a dozen .net runtimes installed but likely not the correct .net version you want (yay), so to me it seems like it would be out. Same for the various C++ redistributables, better not rely on that unless you ship the DLLs you need with it (which I don't think you're allowed to do per Microsoft).
https://2pgarcade.com/contest-144mb.html isn't much more elaborate than the article unfortunately.
- now that would be very interesting to see
Amiga had plenty of single disk games.
Every single NES game or CGB game would fit on a floppy. More or less all GBC and SNES games could compress down to a floppy
However, and to go with your remark,
ZX Spectrum, C64, CPC, Archimedes, Amiga, Atari, plenty of games that would fit into a single floppy.